Families First for Children is the name the government is using to design and implement some of the most significant reforms to children's services in recent years, from family help to the edge of care, and to make sure these changes work well for families.
Dorset Council was selected as one of three local authorities to be a Wave One pathfinder in the government’s new programme to test out the reforms and ensure families are better supported.
The work of the Families First for Children Pathfinder means that families across Dorset now take the lead on plans that see them getting support, where needed, from those in their communities as well as specialist practitioners.
It puts children and their families first and helps them to lead on decision making and tell the local authority, or other support groups in their community, what they think will be most helpful to them.
Dorset Council expects that by putting families at the centre and working closely with other partners, including health organisations, there will be fewer children on child protection plans, fewer children in care and more children will be supported to stay with their birth families.
Background
The work of the Pathfinder follows the Department for Education’s publication in February 2023, of the Stable Homes, Built on Love strategy and consultation, which set out a vision to rebalance children’s social care away from costly crisis intervention, which needs greater support from the local authority, to more meaningful and effective early support, which gives better outcomes for children and their families.
Dorset Council was selected as one of three ‘Wave One’ local authorities to lead this initiative and we have been working closely with our local partners to test and implement changes which will deliver real impact to families.
In November 2024 the Government published its policy statement outlining the commitment to support children to live in family settings where children cannot remain at home, including through kinship or foster care, rather than residential care. The learning from the Families First for Children Pathfinder will start to be rolled out nationally from April 2025.
How we have done it
We were in the fortunate position of not having to re-design everything. We’ve been using our integrated locality-based way of working for some time now where people can get help from a range of children’s services in their community that is tailored to what they need locally. The work of the pathfinder has enhanced the service that was already there.
Dorset has strong partnership working and relationships at every level, this has been key and as a partnership we have worked to shape our model for delivering the reforms. Our parent participation worker has enabled us to sense check ways of working with parents as we have developed them.
We were also one of the local authorities to get grant funding to deliver Family Hubs which has given our families another way to access early help services.
The offer within our Family Hubs recognises that we all need information or support from time to time and sometimes it can be difficult to know where to go or who to ask. Our Family Hubs bring together workers from Dorset Council, Health Services, and Voluntary and Community Organisations in one place. This helps to make sure families can get the right support when they need it and this early support prevents the need for more costly statutory interventions.
Sometimes people will not even need to be involved directly with children’s services to get the support they need as our Family Hubs can offer real help and advice to people directly in their communities.
How it works
The Families First for Children Pathfinder has focused on four areas:
- Family Help – teams that are based locally and can help families with tailored support in a wide range of needs at an early stage. Family Help brings together targeted help and child in need work
- Multi-agency Child Protection arrangements – including implementation of a dedicated and skilled team that works with family help and other agencies to protect children who are suffering or are likely to suffer significant harm
- Family Networks – making greater use of the network that each family has and aiming to keep more children living at home or with someone they already know, including through financial support
- Safeguarding partners – making sure that current safeguarding partners are brought along with any changes and that education is included as a safeguarding partner
We have also focused on the things that enable this work to happen for example, staffing, workforce development, IT system and reporting development, information sharing, management oversight and assurance.
The difference it will make
Anything can change a family’s life from being steady to being unsettled and in crisis, and at times this can have a significant impact on their lives. Any of us might need support from other people to get through these times. Our model aims to get the right help to families when they need it and in the places where they live. We reassure our families that no one is going to judge them, we simply want to make sure that they get the help they need as soon as possible.
We know that most parents want the very best for their children and they know the things that will help them the most. We know that families often have the solutions and know the things that will be most helpful to them. Through our new ways of working, we aim to make sure families get the help they need as early as possible, which includes involving the wider family network early on, so they are able to offer meaningful support. This is a better experience for families who feel more supported and better able to develop their own plans to keep their children close to them.
We expect that by working differently there will be fewer children on child protection plans, fewer children in care and more children will be supported to stay with their birth families.
If children can’t stay with their birth parents, as many as possible will be supported to stay with other members of their family or kinship carers (people who are already known to them) and children in those arrangements will be supported to thrive.
Families are already telling us that they feel much more in control of shaping their own plans to make sure their children are well cared for. They meet with the same people as their need for support increases or decreases, which means they don’t have to keep telling their story.
Partners
We know our families benefit when we work together and provide an integrated, collaborative response. We have a strong partnership in Dorset, and we’ve gone even further deepening our integration and working together through our Pathfinder work.
As a partnership we continue to work together to:
- Continuously improve: contributing to the development and implementation of best practice approaches to improve outcomes for families. Our partners have been right alongside the development and implementation of the reforms
- Participating in the Test and Learn: we are testing and learning together as we are implementing new ways of working
- Sharing Insights and Feedback: regularly sharing insights and feedback to keep improving the work we do and feeding into the evaluation of Pathfinder
Family Group Decision Making and Family Network Support Packages
As part of the reforms Dorset are testing and learning from the implementation of Family Group Decision Making through Family Network Meetings and Family Group Conferencing. Family Group Decision Making brings together the family network, alongside the family, to discuss how they can help. The result can be a Family Network Support Package which is available for families who are taking part in family group decision making.
This is financial support that can be paid to people who are not birth parents who can help in some way. Examples include a new sofa bed so grandparents can stay over in the child’s family home while a parent is unwell, or money so an aunt or uncle or neighbour can pick a child up from school and give them dinner.
Family Networks will be identified by families themselves and could include extended family members as well as friends or non-family members such as faith group representatives or community volunteers.
Dorset Council recognises that not everyone will have a family network around them, so the new network of Family Hubs will offer a welcoming place that families can go to if they need information, advice or help. They will also offer activities and social opportunities for children, parents and carers.
This will be complemented by further work with community organisations and the voluntary sector which together will provide lots of opportunities to support worthwhile connections for children and families.